I've come across several interesting articles/reports over the past week, some of which were forwarded to my by SenseHaven readers. (Thank you all for sharing.) The first of which was the paper for which I was interviewed by a student a couple of months ago. (Refer to my March 22 blog entry.) I was excited to see the final result and, with the author's permission, I'm sharing it here. It's called "Searching for Silence."
Some other interesting articles are: Wendy Aron's latest blog entry, "The cause of my Misophonia Revealed in Kid's Picture Books," two videos "Neurologic Condition Incites Rage Over Certain Sounds," and "Now hear this: Condition has patients on edge over noises," as well as two similar, but not misophonia-specific, articles entitled, "Silence is Now a Luxury Product," and "UTD's Callier Center Begins Trial for New Tinnitus Treatment."
I also forgot to share a radio interview, a newspaper article, and two research journal articles sent to me by one of the researchers from the misophonia fMRI study in London. The 10-minute radio interview of two of the researchers as well as the founder of the UK Misophonia Organization was aired by the BBC Radio and is entitled, "Misophonia, Mondegreens, and Miscommunication." The online newspaper article is entitled, "The sound of my boyfriend chewing makes me want to strangle him:" and is about a 20 year old model who has misophonia. The two research journal articles are, "Misophonia: Diagnostic Criteria for a New Psychiatric Disorder," published by PLOS ONE and, "Misophonia: physiological investigations and case descriptions," published by Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
I also recently came across an interesting therapy that, according to Wikipedia, is a form of Cognitive Behavior Therapy called Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT). Some therapists have been using it as a way to treat people with PTSD, but when I first read about it, I wondered if it's also something that might be able to help people with misophonia too. According to Albert Ellis, the psychologist that developed REBT, "One of the main objectives in REBT is to show the client that whenever unpleasant and unfortunate activating events occur in people's lives, they have a choice of making themselves feel ... frustrated, and annoyed,.." I won't go into an elaborate explanation here, especially since I'm not knowledgeable about the therapy, but you can click on the above link to read more about it for yourself.
I'm not sure REBT would be a good treatment for misophonia though. When I first learned about it, I thought it might be something to consider, since it seems to address a person's emotional reaction to outside stimuli, but after reading the Wikipedia explanation, I noticed one aspect of the treatment is "desensitization," which I've learned is a big no-no when it comes to treating people with misophonia. (We are confronted with triggers on a daily basis. Exposing us to more triggers is not likely to desensitize us.)
Well, it's a beautiful spring day outside. Time to enjoy it while it lasts!